1877 Letter

I'm again needing help from my Old German Script reading people out there. My aunt sent my mother a letter that's dated 16 October 1877, but that's all I can read on it. We have no idea who it's from or who it's to and are hoping that someone out there can interpret it for us. My family would really appreciate any help we can get on this. (Edit: This letter was all on one sheet of paper, folded in half book style. I assumed that it was written book style, front and back, but I may be wrong. Pages 2 and 3 below were the center pages when the paper was opened and the 4th page would have been the left side with the 1st page when the letter was laid flat. One response that I have received questioned the writers fluency in German. I'm assuming that the person spoke the low German that my Mennonite ancestors spoke. I understand that there are enough differences as to make it difficult to be understood by someone that spoke the official German.)

Bierock Bake Fundraiser 2009

Looking for this post I see that I failed to post it. It's being posted in August but will show in my blog at the proper time. Feb. 23rd was bierock bake day for the Golden Wheat chapter AHSGR.

Some of the members brought meat and cabbage ready to go so we could get bierocks into the over ASAP.

There was lots of help, the counter was constantly full with members rolling, stuffing and sealing up the dough/meat/cabbage & onion pocket sandwiches.

Bake them up golden brown then let them cool...

I had been there a short time when I noticed someone very important was missing. About that time in rolled our fearless leader in a wheelchair.

Turned out, that morning as she was loading things up she stepped wrong and ended up breaking her ankle. So she was out of commission as far as the work goes but still able to supervise.

Made good time this year getting everything cooked up, cleaned up and packaged up well withing the time frame that we had to use the kitchen.

This is always a good fund raiser for as as that EVERYONE likes bierocks. Let us know if you want some next year so you can have your order in, we can only make a limited number.

Flowers from My Valentine

Yesterday my littlest Valentine came over with her mother and brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. What a wonderful surprise to brighten my day.
This has been a week of one thing after another. My father is in the hospital and will be for a few weeks. He has antibiotics that they need to give him via IV three times a day. He's feeling fine otherwise. Last Thursday KMonster had a home basketball game that we attended. Saturday was the Princess's basketball tournament out of town that she needed me to drive her to (pictures to come for both games). Had the little Princess overnight Sunday because her parents were going into town on Monday and she has pre-school in the afternoon. We had a sales presentation to attend (yeah, I signed up of a drawing at Big Boys Toy Show) which took a couple three hours on Tuesday, then we went to visit Dad. Wednesday I ended up having grandsons over for supper, their folks were late coming home from town and they were hungry. Thursday we went to town for groceries, we were about out of everything since we hadn't done any real grocery shopping in a couple of months. So in between times I've been working on the pictures from Big Boys Toy Show and should have something to post in the next couple of days. Tonight we have a Sweetheart Dinner to attend at my parents church.

Now I'd like to share my surprise flowers. Just before cold weather really set in last year I cut a bunch of snapdragons that were still in bloom so I could enjoy them in the house. One stem stayed green after the flowers died and fell off so I just left it in the water. After a few weeks, roots began to appear. More recently, buds and just last week they bloomed.

I had thought that the blooms might be small since they had been inside in water and not getting the nutrients from the soil, but they appear to be full size.

The roots look rather pretty in the little glass vase.

I hope everyone has a very...

Y HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY Y

Snowstorm - January 27

I'm glad to be inside my warm home on days that blow cold like the ones pictured below.
It was so cold that the snow froze to the north side of the limbs and branches. It was quite pretty.

The yellow grass turned into frosted grassicles. In a day it was all gone again.

Folklore Meeting Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR

Our January meeting of the Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR is our Folklore meeting and usually our most popular. This year's theme was about "Mother's aprons" and "Father's tools", tools and handiwork of our past.
Members brought in aprons and needlework made by mothers and grandmothers.

A few kitchen items were brought in also.

Old tools were brought in by members from their personal collections...

...and a member borrowed some from a museum to share with us.

Some of the tools came with written stories about them.

A big draw for this meeting is our covered dish dinner of ethnic foods, many favorites passed on from generation to generation.

The desert table is always full of goodies.

Sister was celebrating her birthday and we all joined to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. She serenaded us back.

Our president wore an apron that had been made for attendants at her wedding years ago.

One of our guests gave us a treat by dressing in authentic German clothing.

Our presentation was a nostalgic look at "Mama's Apron"...

...and "Papa's tools".

Topping off another great Folklore meeting, we all joined in singing a song in German.

We had a really nice turnout, some of our regular members were noticeably absent and we had several new faces in the crowd that we hope will be joining us again.

Sample of Posts to Come

I have been so busy the past week that I haven't had a chance to add any new posts to my blog, and I DO have things to post. Here's a sample, the Golden Wheat Chapter of AHSGR had it's Folklore meeting on the 25th. This is always a fun meeting.
I have a couple of snow pictures I'd like to share from our snowfall on the 27th.

Yesterday T&S Mobile Projectors set up our big screen at Big Boys Toy Show in Wichita KS for our 4th year. We had a very nice turnout all day long.

Be looking for these posts in the next couple of days. Oh! and I'll have Super Bowl at Genesis in Hutchinson pictures to show also.